Life Sciences Commons^™

Wild, Native Bees And Managed Honey Bees Benefit From Similar Agricultural Land Uses, Elaine Evans, Matthew Smart, Dan Cariveau, Marla Spivak

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Although both managed and unmanaged bees are important pollinators of crops and wild plants, efforts to address questions about landscapes that best support pollinators often focus on either wild pollinators or honey bees. This study examined if there was concordance between the success of wild bee communities and managed honey bee colonies at sites varying in floral availability and disturbance level in a predominantly agricultural landscape. We also determined which agricultural land uses best supported wild bee communities. The study area in the state of North Dakota in Northern Great Plains in North America is home to understudied native bee …

Transcriptional Response Of Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera) To Differential Nutritional Status And Nosema Infection, Farida Azzouz-Olden, Arthur G. Hunt, Gloria Degrandi-Hoffman

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: Bees are confronting several environmental challenges, including the intermingled effects of malnutrition and disease. Intuitively, pollen is the healthiest nutritional choice, however, commercial substitutes, such as Bee-Pro and MegaBee, are widely used. Herein we examined how feeding natural and artificial diets shapes transcription in the abdomen of the honey bee, and how transcription shifts in combination with Nosema parasitism.

Results: Gene ontology enrichment revealed that, compared with poor diet (carbohydrates [C]), bees fed pollen (P > C), Bee-Pro (B > C), and MegaBee (M > C) showed a broad upregulation of metabolic processes, especially lipids; however, pollen feeding promoted more functions, and …

Effects Of Flight Activity And Age On Oxidative Damage In The Honey Bee, Apis Mellifera, Joseph W. Margotta, Stephen P. Roberts, Michelle M. Elekonich

Biological Sciences Faculty Research & Creative Works

Frequent and Highly Aerobic Behaviors Likely Contribute to Naturally Occurring Stress, Accelerate Senescence and Limit Lifespan. to Understand How the Physiological and Cellular Mechanisms that Determine the Onset and Duration of Senescence Are Shaped by Behavioral Development and Behavioral Duration, We Exploited the Tractability of the Honeybee (Apis Mellifera) Model System. First, We Determined Whether a Cause-Effect Relationship Exists between Honeybee Flight and Oxidative Stress by Comparing Oxidative Damage Accrued from Intense Flight Bouts to Damage Accrued from D-Galactose Ingestion, Which Induces Oxidative Stress and Limits Lifespan in Other Insects. Second, We Experimentally Manipulated the Duration of Honeybee Flight Across …

Toxicity Of Selected Acaricides To Honey Bees (Apis Mellifera) And Varroa (Varroa Destructor Anderson And Trueman) And Their Use In Controlling Varroa Within Honey Bee Colonies, Aleš Gregorc, Mohamed Alburaki, Blair Sampson, John Adamczyk

Faculty Publications

The efficacies of various acaricides in order to control a parasitic mite, the Varroa mite, Varroa destructor, of honey bees, were measured in two different settings, namely, in laboratory caged honey bees and in queen-right honey bee colonies. The Varroa infestation levels before, during, and after the acaricide treatments were determined in two ways, namely: (1) using the sugar shake protocol to count mites on bees and (2) directly counting the dead mites on the hive bottom inserts. The acaricides that were evaluated were coumaphos, tau-fluvalinate, amitraz, thymol, and natural plant compounds (hop acids), which were the active ingredients. The …

The Influence Of Spatiotemporally Decoupled Land Use On Honey Bee Colony Health And Pollination Service Delivery, Matthew D. Smart, Clint R. V. Otto, Benjamin L. Carlson, Cali L. Roth

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Societal dependence on insects for pollination of agricultural crops has risen amidst concerns over pollinator declines. Habitat loss and lack of forage have been implicated in the decline of both managed and native pollinators. Land use changes in the Northern Great Plains of the US, a region supporting over 1 million honey bee colonies annually, have shifted away from historical grassland ecosystems bees rely on for forage toward landscapes dominated by corn, soybeans, and other row crops. We investigated how land use impacts honey bee colony population size during the growing season and subsequent colony population size for almond pollination …

In-Hive Acaricides Alter Biochemical And Morphological Indicators Of Honey Bee Nutrition, Immunity, And Development, Alison M. Reeves, Scott T. O'Neal, Richard D. Fell, Carlyle C. Brewster, Troy D. Anderson

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

The honey bee is a widely managed crop pollinator that provides the agricultural industry with the sustainability and economic viability needed to satisfy the food and fiber needs of our society. Excessive exposure to apicultural pesticides is one of many factors that has been implicated in the reduced number of managed bee colonies available for crop pollination services. The goal of this study was to assess the impact of exposure to commonly used, beekeeper-applied apicultural acaricides on established biochemical indicators of bee nutrition and immunity, as well as morphological indicators of growth and development. The results described here demonstrate that …

Using Colony Monitoring Devices To Evaluate The Impacts Of Land Use And Nutritional Value Of Forage On Honey Bee Health, Matthew D. Smart, Clint R.V. Otto, Robert Cornman, Deborah Iwanowicz

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Colony monitoring devices used to track and assess the health status of honey bees are becoming more widely available and used by both beekeepers and researchers. These devices monitor parameters relevant to colony health at frequent intervals, often approximating real time. The fine-scale record of hive condition can be further related to static or dynamic features of the landscape, such as weather, climate, colony density, land use, pesticide use, vegetation class, and forage quality. In this study, we fit commercial honey bee colonies in two apiaries with pollen traps and digital scales to monitor floral resource use, pollen quality, and …

The Impacts Of Honey Bee Queen Stress On Worker Behavior And Health, Sarah R. Preston

Theses and Dissertations--Entomology

Pesticides, poor nutrition, parasites and diseases work synergistically to contribute to the decline of the honey bee. Heritable sub-lethal behavior/immune effects may also contribute to the decline. Maternal stress is a common source of heritable immune/behavior deficits in many species. A stressed honey bee queen has the potential to pass such deficits on to worker bees. Using a repeated measures design, this study will determine whether the health of worker bee is reduced by a cold stress on the queen by analyzing egg hatch rate and protein content, emergence rate, and adult aggression and immune function for offspring laid before …